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Greg Malinowski on transportationWashington County District 2 Commissioner Greg Malinowski talks about the county's $2.6 billion backlog in transportation construction projects. This month, The Oregonian will be publishing a series of short videos of Washington County Commission candidates talking about issues. The election will be May 20.

Through April, we will be publishing a series of videos of Washington County commissioner candidates talking about issues such as Gain Share, transportation and development.

This week, we have Washington County District 2 Commissioner Greg Malinowski and his opponent, university professor Bob Zahrowski. District 2, in the county’s northeast corner, includes Bethany, Cedar Hills, Cedar Mill, Raleigh Hills, Rock Creek and portions of Hillsboro and Beaverton. The election will be May 20.

The issue: With all the growth that Washington County is experiencing, transportation has become a major challenge. The county has an estimated $2.6 billion backlog in transportation construction projects, and needs about $7.5 million more a year to keep up with road maintenance.

This winter, the county started working on a big-picture study that will assess transportation needs in the next 50 years. Among other things, the study will look at the need for a north-south freeway west of Portland.

The question: How do you plan to address the county’s $2.6 billion backlog in transportation construction projects?

What the candidate has to say: Malinowski said one of the reasons why he decided to run for office in 2010 was that he believed the county was offering tax breaks to developers instead of addressing the backlog in transportation needs.

He said his district, in the county’s northeast corner, is about $700 million behind in transportation construction projects and gets about $7 million a year to put toward it.

“We need to come up with a better premise than that or our infrastructure and our ability to move around and to move freight are going to deteriorate in a faster and faster rate the more we fall behind,” he said. “We need to have a discussion with the taxpayers about how they want to do this going forward.”